Month: January 2026 (Page 2 of 4)

It’s supposed to be dangerously cold with conditions ripe for absolutely horrid Winter weather this weekend,  but there’s still things you can get into with our trademark cursory list of cool STUFF TO DO all over the state, noted as briefly as possible.

Check the weather before you go out. Especially this weekend, there’s a chance that events might get cancelled.

As always, you should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments. Seriously, for the last several weeks, by the time the weekend rolls around, I discover several events that I just totally missed out on.  Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky , Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote. Note that some links look like they shouldn’t work because they have lines through them, but that’s just a WordPress glitch, so click on them anyway. They should still work.

We are very happy to remind you that Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

This week’s feature event is GI Joe Winterfest in Louisville, where your humble blogger will be headed, unless we get blizzard conditions this weekend. You can read about it HERE, from a couple of days ago, and check out the graphic below, along with a couple of pictures from previous shows…

Most weekends you can find live music at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and Friday and Saturday shows start at 7:30 PM.  Many Sunday afternoons at 2 PM they also have live music. This weekend they have Travis Vandalon Friday, Marcus Olgesby on Saturday and The Dynamic Duo on Sunday.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing.

You might also find cool musical events at Route 60 Music in Barboursville and Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.  You can also visit Coal River Coffee in Saint Albans for live music in an alcohol-free environment.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events happening over the next several days that I was able to scrounge up online…

Continue reading

We’re doing a special encore day Tuesday on The AIR  so that means we’re going back six years for an early edition of Radio Free Charleston Volume 5. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the day I met my wife, and it was also the day I usually record RFC, so choices had to be made.

I’m always going to choose my wife in a case like this. However, that means that you get a special treat. I went back into the vault and dug out the third episode of RFC Volume 5, which originally ran on The AIR six years ago this week. That was just before the pandemic shutdowns had begun in earnest, but it was also before I started uploading each episode to this blog, so you can listen to them on demand. That means the only way you could listen to this episode would be if you tuned into the RFC Daily feature on The AIR, where it has been played three or four times over the last four years.

Today that changes. I will embed this episode below, and eventually we’ll make all of the episodes of RFC Volume 5 available here.

So…while this week’s show is a rerun, at least it’s not one that’s been worn out with repeated airings.

This particular show was jam-packed with great music from Charleston and the whole world. This episode was rich with the local music archives, but we popped in with one big set of then-new music from legends of the past. Which is now also in our local music archives.

Because this is an encore show and Mel is waiting for me so we can head out, we don’t have the usual links in the playlist this week…

RFCv5003

hour one
Feast of Stephen “Needing Only Me”
Cannon Sodaro Band “Mountaineer”
Spencer Elliott “The Promise”
Peter Murphy “That Scarlett Thing In You”
The Animals “House of the Rising Sun”
Jon Anderson “Twice In A Lifetime”
Three Bodies “Gardens of Hope”
The Who “I’ll Be Back”
Jeff Lynne’s ELO “Down Came The Rain”
Sparks “Check Out Time 11 AM”
Howard Jones “Tin Man Song”
Van Morrison “Fame Will Eat The Soul”

hour two
Gypsy Rhythm “Missing”
Sweet “Tall Girls”
Mark Beckner “Sweet Addiction”
Joseph Hale “Time”
John Lennon “God (early version)”
Gary Numan “Down In The Park (outtake mix)”
Metronomy “Salted Caramel Ice Cream”
John Radcliff “Dreaming”
The Black Keys “Lo_Hi”
The Fools “The Runner”
Robert Palmer “Addicted To Love”
Year Long Disaster “Swan On Black Lake”

hour three
Aaron Fisher and Ghostfleet “Firetrucks”
Transvision Vamp “Veleveteen”
Scrap Iron Pickers “Junkyard Jesus”
YES “Machine Messiah (live)”
Tarja “Spirits of the Sea”
Axis Everything “Undersound”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM  The Swing Shift is an encore of episodes 3 and 4, just to match up with this week’s RFC encore.

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.

Today’s art was done very quickly Sunday, quietly so that Mrs. PopCulteer didn’t find out about it.

Not that I paint that loudly.

You see, today is January 19, and in addition to it being the day we observe Martin Luthor King Day this year, it’s also the anniversary of the day I met Melanie Larch at a Stark Raven CD Release party at The Charleston Playhouse.

That was 36 years ago. We’ve been a couple since 1990, and we finally got married in 2014.

Mel is not one to rush into things. In fact, we’d been together 16 years before she ever let me take a photograph of her. Mel hates having her picture taken. Strange for a veteran stage performer, I know, but I do not question the ways of mah queen. Today’s very quick and sloppy acrylic painting on cheap canvas board is based on that photo I took twenty years ago.

Since then, Mel has loosened up a bit, and has allowed me to take her photo nearly four more times. But she really hates it. If you have a photo you took of Mel and are still alive, count yourself lucky.

But, since Mel was very happy with this photo, and since she is the most important thing in my life and the anniversary of the day we met falls on a Monday, I decided to do a real-world painting inspired by that first photo for this week’s Monday Morning Art. I just had to rush to get it done without her finding out. Despite my shaky hands from an MG flare-up, I had to do this for my love.

If you want to see this image larger, click HERE.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a classic episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM we do the same with Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM.

Tonight at 9 PM we bring you our Monday night line-up featuring two hours each of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast, plus six hours overnight with an assortment of our programming from Haversham Recording Institute. The Haversham stuff starts at 1 AM and tonight it’s all Nigel Pye and Psychedelic Shack.

Tomorrow, Radio Free Charleston will be a special encore presentation because your humble blogger normally records the show on Mondays, and I have other stuff to do today.

Anniversary stuff.

GI Joe Winterfest, the January show put on by the folks who do The Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo, happens next weekend, and above you see a music video I made for last year’s show.

Weather permitting, your PopCulteer and his lovely wife will be heading West (it’s really a pleasant drive) to just South of Louisville, Kentucky for the GI Joe Winterfest, a toy show produced by the fine folks behind The Kentuckiana GI Joe Toy Expo (which happens in July). Check out the Facebook Event Page for full details and preview photos. I have not decided if I’m going to shoot video this year. I will take tons of photos for the blog, but I’ve got to do some major computer maintenance before I can crank out video, so I may not shoot as much, if any, just to lighten my workload.

I’ll probably at least do a music video, though.

This will be our fourth or fifth Winterfest, and it’s back at the home of The Kentuckiana show.  GI Joe Winterfest happens at the Paroquet Springs Conference Centre, at 395 Paroquet Springs Drive, in Shepherdsville, KY.  It’s not far at all from the South Louisville Antique Toy Mall, so most toy collectors ought to have an easy time finding it. Check out how cool it looks…

Kick off the new year with a a celebration of over 60 years of GI Joe. Find old and new 12 inch and 3 3/4 inch GI Joes, plus Star Wars, Super Hero figures, Marx, TMNT, Transformers and much more. In addition, There will be dozens of vendors  and the show promises lots of old and new Megos, Big Jim, Pop Culture items and much more.

GI Joe Winterfest is Saturday, with a Friday preview. Here’s the hours and details:

Saturday 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM Admission Just $8.00
Early Bird Admission at 9:00 AM for $15.00

Friday Night Preview (5:00 PM-8:00 PM) for $30.00
(Preview includes Early Bird admission on Saturday)

All admissions payable at the doors.

Below we have music videos for the previous two years…

This week we head back to the first day of October, 2012, for Radio Free Charleston 170, “Regular Show Shirt.”

This episode is a valentine to Budget Tapes and Records, the legendary music and lifestyle emporium that was just then celebrating forty years of serving area music fans from their Kanawha City location, and managed to hang on almost another dozen years after this.

Our host segments originated from Budget, and we even have two songs by Farnsworth, recorded on location at the release party for their first EP at the legendary store.

RFC 170 also brought viewers a song from the Contemporary Youth Arts Company production of the Dan Kehde/Mark Scarpelli original, The Legend of Ginger and Billy Joe: The Stock Car Musical, as well as animation and a found film compilation by Frank Panucci.

You can find the original production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
January 16, 2026

Charleston’s Restaurant Week is coming up from January 26 to 31, and it’s time for my annual reminder that, if you’re in the area, this is a great way to sample some of the Charleston area’s newest or trendiest restaurants at a discounted price.

We’re talking about “fine dining” here, so those discounted prices range from twenty-five to forty-nine bucks for a three-course meal for one person. This is not fast food, and you’ll want to be sure to scope out the menus ahead of time to make sure that the set selections at that price are to your liking.

Each restuarant offers an appetizer, entree and dessert, for one. Drinks are extra. And most of the restaurants give you a choice between two offerings for each course. This makes it more efficient for them, so don’t expect much in the way of substitutions.

You can find graphics with the Restaurant Week menus for each participating restaurant at the Facebook Page for Restaurant Week.

You can also find Steven J. Keith’s  detailed analysis of those menus at his blog.

Steven offers an enthusiastic rundown of the complete menus, and he’s more qualified to write about this event than yours truly because…I have no plans to try any of these special menus.

I think it’s a great idea, and it’s wonderful for the area. Foodies should definitely partake and sample as many of these great restaurants as they can.

But…as I have written about in PopCult many times, I have far too many dietary restrictions and my own sets of tastes and quirks that make attempting to try any of these meals downright dangerous, if not off-putting for me, personally.

Before I go any further, let me explain that I am not complaining about nor am I condemning any of these restaurants. Any restaurant that tried to exclusively cater to my food quirks would probably go out of business in a week. There’s just too much stuff I can’t eat, and an even longer list of stuff I won’t eat.

I posted a silly note about this on Facebook earlier in the week, and my comedic skills must have been diminished because most people reacted as though it were a sad lament. It was not. I was poking fun at myself. This is not a “poor me” column. It’s a “go ahead and laugh at me” column.

It could also be an “easy ways to kill Rudy” column, but hopefully that angry guy from KV Live won’t be reading this.

THINGS I CAN’T EAT

I have a lot of unusual dietary restrictions. I can’t eat mushrooms (or truffles or stuff like that). It’s not exactly an allergy. It’s an extreme toxic reaction. I do not pass anaphylaxis, I go straight to organ failure. I have to avoid mushrooms. It is a matter of life and death for me. Anybody who thinks this is something to joke about is just being an asshole.

I have a standard food allergy to strawberries, as well as many other berries that are supposed to be good for you. With these it’s itching, rashes, general misery, but nothing fatal.

I am allergic to rubbing alcohol, and alcoholic drinks burn enough that I consider myself allergic to them, too. This is no great loss since I could never stand the taste of any alcoholic beverages anyway. This includes beer. I have tasted beer before, just out of curiosity. I have never tasted urine, but I would imagine it tastes about like the beer I tried, so I’ll gladly pass on that.

It’s just as well, since I don’t show the usual signs of inebriation. A doctor once told me that I could drink until I died from alcohol poisoning without ever getting drunk. I’ve never had any desire to test that theory.

A few years ago I learned that avocado somehow counteracts the meds I take to control Myasthenia Gravis. This is apparently a rare reaction, but I managed to learn about it the hard way. It’s part of the joy of being a medical anomoly.

With mushrooms, alcohol, strawberries and avocado out of the question for me, that’s more than half of the restaurant week menus ruled out, and that’s not even taking my personal tastes into account.

THINGS I WON’T EAT

Personal tastes are where I draw a whole new set of boundaries. Some food I just don’t like. Nobody has any right to tell me I’m wrong for having my own tastes, and I don’t judge anybody who loves food that I find repulsive. I see way too much of people demonizing other people on social media because of what they eat or how they eat it. The food bullying is pretty pathetic, and says a lot about the person doing the bullying.

If somebody wants their steak well done, then let them have it well done. Get your head out of your ass and mind your own damn business instead of calling them “evil” on social media because they don’t like their meat cooked the same way as you.

For the record…I don’t even eat red meat anymore. About seven months ago I just lost any desire for it. It doesn’t even look like food to me anymore. Of all the evil things in the world today that you can call people out on, what they eat (unless it’s babies) is not in the top million.

I do have strongly-held opinions about what I will or won’t eat. I do not expect anyone else to conform to my tastes, and to be fair, I will refrain from posting some of my reasons for hating certain foods because I don’t want to do anything to lessen the enjoyment of those foods by other people.

Just accept that I like different things than you, and move on. In fact, you can have my share.

There are foods I find repulsive to the point that they nauseate me. These include mayonnaise, cole slaw, ham, bacon, deviled eggs, oysters, sour cream, candy corn, cucumbers (oddly enough, I like pickles), most jams and jellies and preserves and spaghetti-like pasta (it’s the shape, not the pasta itself). Again, I could write very funny reasons for each of those, but I see no need to possibly ruin them for folks who like to eat that stuff.

I also can’t stand the smell of smoked meat. It smells like a tire fire to me. I have been known to avoid streets where I know one of those BBQ trailers is parked because the smell is so offensive to me. I’ve been like this for years, and maybe that had something to do with me finally losing any desire to even eat a hamburger. I don’t miss it at all. I’m fine with chicken and fish as my main source of meatish proteins.

Of late I’m even feeling a bit tofu-curious.

When it comes to spicy food, I prefer flavor over heat. I just don’t like the taste of Jalapeno or Chipoltle. I’m fine with milder chiles.  And while I love chicken, I hate wings.  Too many of them are like licking battery acid off of a bone.  Anything “Buffalo,” again…you can have my share.

There are also foods of which I am simply not a fan. I wouldn’t starve myself, they were the only thing around, but if I ever eat pancakes or waffles, I skip the syrup. The combination sorta grosses me out. I find it hard to get excited about iceberg lettuce. If I can build a salad on any other green leafy thing, I will.  I find baked potatoes to be boring. It is the C-Span of side dishes.

There’s plenty of foods I love, but again, I don’t care if you like or hate them. You do you.

PICKING YOUR FOOD FIGHTS

My late friend, Lee Harrah, had a deep, unabiding, intense hatred of vegetable soup. I could never understand it, but I never tried to get him to change his mind. I love a good bowl of vegetable soup, but it was one of the things he hated most in the world, and it could Hulk trigger him into a rage.

He felt the same way about mermaids and Diane Keaton, so I just sort of changed the subject and tried not to bring those things up again.

My point there being, respect other people’s tastes. They may love something you hate, and hate something you love, and that’s okay. And if Restaurant Week sounds like fun to you, by all means go to it. It could be a lot of fun.

A last note: I do patronize many locally-owned restaurants, and most of my favorites are not taking part in Restaurant Week. And that’s okay, because most of my favorite places are inexpensive enough that you can feed two people, leave a nice tip and bring home leftovers for less than the price of the average Restaurant Week menu for one.

And I never get any grief for asking them to leave out something that might kill me. It has been my experience that the more expensive a restaurant is, the less flexible they are about adjusting their menu to accomodate your food allergies.

If you find the Restaurant Week offerings a little too expensive, or outside your tastes, let me recommend Dwight’s, Shuckers, Mediterranean Breeze or The Red Line Diner in Saint Albans; Shima’s in Nitro; Roma’s in Cross Lanes/Nitro; Graziano’s in South Charleston; Plaza Mayo in Kanawha City and Leonoro’s in Charleston.

And if you have other recomendations, feel free to leave them in the comments.  Mel and I are always up to try a new place. I just need to see the menu first to see if it’s safe.

That is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content and all our regular features.

20 years ago (tomorrow, actually), I posted a “Local Notes” story that tied together brief items on three local things. You can read it HERE.

It wasn’t a spectacular post, but revisiting it gives me an opportunity to address one of the curious things about PopCult.

Due to our origins as part of The Charleston Gazette, the local scene has always been a huge part of this blog. Being a blog about pop culture means that my reach exceeds my local grasp, and as the years have gone by I have written more and more about things that are not necessarily focused on Central West Virginia. I must be doing something right, because last year, while I wasn’t really paying attention, readership of PopCult more than doubled, and I’m confident that we actually have more daily readers than The Charleston Gazette-Mail does now.

Even though my local interest posts only attract a fraction of the readers of my book, toy, movie or cereal reviews or travel photo essays and videos, I keep doing them because it is a way to support the local scene, but it also lets me do something easier than writing a detailed review every day of the week. The weekly STUFF TO DO post, where I run a boilerplate and graphics, is sort of my half-day off, because it takes so little effort.

That’s why PopCult is regarded as a “local blog that isn’t always about local stuff,” as another esteemed blogger once said.

But back to that original post from January 16, 2006, in it I plugged three local things, and sadly two of them appear to be gone for good.

The first item promoted a “Briefs and Shorts” program put on by Kanawha Players. KP was designated as the official theater company of West Virginia for much of their existence, but sadly, it appears that existence has come to an end. The last event they actually held was a 100th anniversary performance of Overtones, the very first show they produced on November 3, 1922. The anniversary show was held November 26, 2022 at the Kanawha County Public Library.

A planned performance of The Vagina Monologues in early 2023 was cancelled. No events have been announced since. Their domain name has expired. The Facebook page has only had a dozen posts in the ensuing three years, none of them saying anything about them still being an ongoing concern.

I suppose that it’s possible that KP might be revived, but for the time being, we have to consider them defunct.

And that is a sad end for a theater company that has been responsible for some of the greatest moments in local theater for a hundred years.

The second item in that post was a plug for The  West Virginia International Auto Show, which happened the weekend of that post.

It wasn’t until I started updating this post that I realized that the WVIAS is apparently also no more than a memory. The last one was held in 2024. Last year’s show was cancelled unexpectedly, and with nothing scheduled for this year, it appears this event is apparently also defunct. The domain name has also expired. Nothing has been announced since last year’s cancellation and the fact that I either forgot that it was cancelled or never noticed in the first place is a clue that, just maybe, not enough people cared about buying new cars to make the event worthwhile.

I know personally, I don’t find much of anything exciting about new cars. Most of them look alike and have touchscreens for controls.  Add in the fact that new cars cost as much as a house these days, and I think we can figure out why this show ended.

On a happier note, the third item in that post was a plug for Rick Lee’s Blog. Rick’s Blog is still up so you can read it and see Rick’s amazing photography….but he has not updated it since 2012. Rick was one of the major proponents of most local blogs, and was very encouraging to me, and several other local blog-makers.  But he has moved on to other things.

And who can blame him? I mean, nobody reads blogs anymore. You’d have to be crazy to still be blogging in 2026.

Happily, Rick is still an active photographer, and you can see his work at his website, or actually all over the place because his work is in such demand.

And, making things even happier, since I’m writing about Rick here,  I don’t think he’ll mind if I swipe one of his images for the feature image today, since the original entry doesn’t have any graphics for me to mine for today’s post. At least I hope he doesn’t mind.

So credit for the feature image at the top of this post goes to Rick. the image (sans my 20 year logo) is  swiped from Rick’s website.  Go hire him if you need some photos taken. The man has an amazing eye and his compositional skills are a superpower.

And that is an updated look at what was in this blog (almost) exactly 20 years ago, today.

It’s cold, but there’s still things you can get into with our trademark cursory list of cool STUFF TO DO all over the state, noted as briefly as possible.

As always, you should remember that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments. Seriously, for the last several weeks, by the time the weekend rolls around, I discover several events that I just totally missed out on.  Also, if you have a show that you’d like to plug in the future, contact me via Social Media at Facebook, BlueSky , Spoutible, Instagram or Twitter.  I dont charge for this, so you might as well send me something if you have an event to promote. Note that some links look like they shouldn’t work because they have lines through them, but that’s just a WordPress glitch, so click on them anyway. They should still work.

We are very happy to remind you that Cristen Michael has created an interactive calendar that is way more comprehensive than this list of STUFF TO DO, and you can find it HERE. Just click on the day and the event and you’ll be whisked away to a page with more details about loads of area events.

This week’s feature event happens all weekend in Beckley…

Most weekends you can find live music at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and Friday and Saturday shows start at 7:30 PM.  Many Sunday afternoons at 2 PM they also have live music. This weekend they have The Carpenter Ants on Friday, Kurt Shultis on Saturday and Spencer Elliott on Sunday.

You can find live music in and around town every night of the week. You just have to know where to look.  Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Among the notable music venues in town are The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe, Live at The Shop in Dunbar, Louie’s, at Mardi Gras Casino & Resort, In Huntington, there’s local institution, The Loud (formerly The V Club),  The Wandering Wind Meadery is on Charleston’s West Side, Plus there’s music in Charleston at The Blue Parrot, Sam’s Uptown Cafe and Fife Street Brewing.

You might also find cool musical events at Route 60 Music in Barboursville and Folklore Music Exchange in Charleston.

To hear music in an alcohol-free enviroment, see what’s happening at Pumzi’s, on Charleston’s West Side.  You can also visit Coal River Coffee in Saint Albans for live music in an alcohol-free environment.

For cutting-edge independent art films, downstairs from Taylor Books you’ll find the Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema by WVIFF. Each week they program several amazing movies in their intimate viewing room that you aren’t likely to see anywhere else.

Please remember that viral illnesses are still a going concern and many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out. And if you’re at an outdoor event, please remember that it’s awfully inconsiderate to smoke or vape around people who become ill when exposed to that stuff. If somebody asks you to refrain, please respect their weishes and don’t be a jerk about it.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

Here we go, roughly in order, it’s graphics for local events happening over the next several days that I was able to scrounge up online…

We are two weeks into 2026 on The AIR  and we’re marking the occasion with a new episode of Radio Free Charleston that is packed with three hours of local, independent and really cool music. To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

Radio Free Charleston brings you a brand-new show with the first two hours loaded with great local and independent stuff, and the final hour showcasing some great and varied instrumental music.

We open our show this week with Samuel S.C., a band recommended highly by local Scenester, Jon Raider. Jon also mentioned that they’d like to land a show in Charleston, since they’re playing so many towns around us.

We also load up our first hour with great new tunes from J Marinelli, Armeda’s Island, Kula Shaker, and more. Our second hour features new tunes from The Heavy Hitters Band, The Settlement, Spock’s Beard, Moron Police, Gardenn and more.

The third hour this week is all instrumental music, leading off with a brand-new track from David Synn. It’s also a mixtape, so you don’t have to listen to so much of my voice.

This show was recorded less than 12 hours before it’s debut airing, because other stuff was going on all day. So if I sound a little loopy, that’s why.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page where available…

RFC V5 255

hour one
Samuel S.C. “Evergreen”
J Marinelli “I Can’t Care”
HARRAH “Nothing Me”
Custard Flux “Winter”
Byzantine “Servitude”
Karen Lawrence & The Pinz “I Won’t Stop”
Ghoulbox  “Rats in the Morgue”
Armeda’s Island “A Truth Hard to Tame”
Joy Viver “Anima Mundi”
Kula Shaker “Be Merciful”
Heavy Set Paw Paws “Molly’s Chambers”
June Swoon “Blood From A Stone”
Erik Woods “Do You Ever”
The Bad Shepherds “Rise”

hour two
The Heavy Hitters Band “Ain’t No Sunshine”
The Settlement “Lizard On The Run (Live)”
Spock’s Beard “St. Jerome In The Wilderness”
Moron Police “Pachinko”
Unmanned “Light The Beacons”
Gardenn “Tour Dates”
Julian Lennon “I Hope”

hour three
David Synn “1984”
Steve Morse Band “Tumeni Partz”
Byzantine “The Clockmaker’s Intention”
Guitarmy of One “Western Spies Surf at Dawn”
Peter Frampton “The Frightened City”
Ritchie Blackmore “Apache”
Devon Allman & Nightvision “Welcome To Rylos, my boy!”
Jan Akkerman “Big Sur”
Dark Entities “March of the Skulls”
Jim & The Sea Dragons “Shooting Stars”
The Ventures “Love Goddes of Venus”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM  The Swing Shift is an encore of two recent episodes.

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.

Today’s art is the kind of thing you do when you aren’t terribly inspired, but really want to try out some new brushes and fresh tubes of paint.

Which is why it’s a semi-abstract, glorified doodle. It’s a series of four very rough cartoonish doodles based on a famous 1928 John de Mirjian photograph of actress/showgirl Wanda Stevenson.  I arranged them sort of Busby Berkley style and distored each figure differently.  Hence the title.

It’s acrylic on illustration board, using brushes that are way more stiff than I use for my more photorealistic pieces. If you think the color scheme is a bit influenced by the flag of Chicago…you might be right.

I wish I had a better reason for having done this besides trying out new brushes and paints, but that’s pretty much why this exists.

If you want to see this image larger, click HERE.

Meanwhile, over in radioland, Monday beginning at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a classic episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM we do the same with Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM.

Tonight at 9 PM we bring you our Monday night line-up featuring two hours each of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast, plus six hours overnight with an assortment of our programming from Haversham Recording Institute. The Haversham stuff starts at 1 AM and tonight it’s all Sydney Fileen and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat.